Sermon – Romans 5:1-11, Adopted as the Children of God

Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard

Sermon – Romans 5:1-11, Adopted as the Children of God

Eagle Rock Presbyterian Church

February 24, 2008

Today is the third Sunday of Lent. Lent is a season of 40 days, excluding Sundays, when we focus on our faith and relationship with God. Two weeks ago we reflected on the reality of sin and how we choose to decide for oursleves right from wrong and we set the bar lower and lower thus deluding ourselves into thinking that sin no longer exists. Last week we saw the great act of God, who freely forgave our sins and granted eternal life to all who believe in Jesus Christ. Today we will see what it means to be adopted as God’s children.

Will you pray with me? Father in heaven we come to you today as your forgiven children. We thank you for this gift and ask that you allow us to enter into a relationship with you. We ask that through Jesus Christ, who reigns with you in heaven, that your anger and justified wrath against us be pardoned. And we ask that though the Holy Spirit your love be poured down upon us. We ask these things so that as your children we may be shaped into your image as you created us, and be filled with your glory, Amen.

Romans 5:1-11 Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, ² through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. ³ And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, ⁴ and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, ⁵ and hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us. ⁶ For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. ⁷ Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person-- though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. ⁸ But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us. ⁹ Much more surely then, now that we have been justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from the wrath of God. ¹⁰ For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more surely, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life. ¹¹ But more than that, we even boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

God has freely granted to all the faithful the forgiveness of all sin and assurance of everlasting life. This is a wonderful gift from a loving God. Jesus’ death on the cross made all of this possible because his death paid for our sins and made our deaths unnecessary. So even though we are mortal and will one day die we can be assured that one day we will rise from the dead, just as Jesus did, to live forever in the presence of God. But since all of this takes place either far in the future or far away in heaven we can legitimately ask if there are any gifts that God gives us now while we are still alive.

The Israelites following Moses certainly had this question in mind. They had already received the wonderful gift of freedom from slavery in Egypt. They had watched as the waters of the Red Sea had been parted. They had followed a pillar of smoke by day and a pillar of fire at night. They knew that God loved them very much. But when their problems multiplied and they were facing a lack of water they forgot all about all those things God had done for them and focused only on their pressing needs. And God, as a loving mother, blessed them and provided for them with water coming out of a rock.

God invites us to be in a relationship with him as his children. Of course we have in one sense always been in a relationship with God. That relationship was characterized by our rebellion. We turned our back of God and hid. But now God is offering a new kind of relationship, one based on peace and the health and well being for our bodies and our souls. As with any relationship our relationship with God need frequent attention. I have always had a hard time with relationships. That is probably why I did not marry until I was nearly 50. But now, with Grace, I see the importance of meeting people regularly and calling people more often on the telephone. To form a relationship with God we need to meet with God and talk with her on a regular basis. That is why we need to pray, worship, and read scripture regularly. A daily practice of Bible reading and prayer is essential in developing the kind of relationship that God is offering us. This relationship is made possible because God chose to come to us as the incarnate Jesus Christ to meet us where we are and experience what we experience. So through Jesus Christ we can have a wholesome relationship with our creator.

We see from this that Christianity is at it root relational. We have a relationship with God and with each other. The American church has often stressed the individual nature of faith and has told us that we can have a personal relationship with Christ. This is true, but we should not forget that our faith is also based on our relationship with each other and with all of God’s people. We worship God not in isolation but as part of a church. And our particular church worships God not alone but with all the other churches on the planet. Our faith is relational; we are all bound together by God’s love.

As we develop a relationship with God through Jesus Christ amazing things begin to happen. We begin to change; we are transformed. This happens gradually. Ever time you come to worship, every time you meditate on scripture, every time you pray a stitch is made in the fabric of you life. You mature, over the years, into what you were created to be. You see God created us in his image and likeness. So as we mature as Christians we become more and more like God. The apostle Paul called this “sharing in the glory of God.” Usually Paul tells us to be humble. But as we form a relationship with God and become more like God Paul wants us to boast and to proclaim to the entire world all that God has done for us.

This all sounds really great. God not only forgives us but helps us to become more like God. But we experience all of the trials and tribulations of life. Our health fails and we wind up in the hospital. Our parents become old and frail and need our care. We find it difficult to pay our mortgages and all the bills that come due each month. Our children live in another part of the world and we can’t see them as often as we would like. We have to adjust to living in a new land, learning a new language and culture. In a world beset with difficulties how does a relationship with God help us? By nurturing a relationship with God with prayer and worship we are able to endure these hardships and withstand the problems that befall us because we know that God is there with us. And God will use our trials to refine us, improve us and make us into what we were created to be, shining examples of the glory of God.

The way God transforms us into her image is through the Holy Spirit, who enters into our hearts and fills us with God’s empowering love. We experience this love in worship as the Holy Spirit comes upon us, as it did to the apostles on the Day of Pentecost, to fill us with God’s Spirit empowering us for the work God wants us to do. We know through the Holy Spirit that our prayers will reach God and that God will answer us in our prayers, worship and meditation on scripture.

So how do we know that God loves us and cares for us? What other explanation would you have for God having his own son die for us so that our sins are forgiven and we are assured of eternal life? God, most certainly, is motivated by his love for us. We certainly do not deserve this love, but God loves us anyway. And this love is the basis and power for the transformative relationship which we have been offered.

This week I had the pleasure of meeting one of our elders as she was recuperating from surgery in the hospital. Lois Shilts was in good spirits when I arrived and was resting comfortably. What I noticed, most of all, was the enormous amount of love in the room. Lois’s daughter had come to care for her mother. And I realized that this care modeled the love God has for all of us and God’s desire to care for us in our times of need and assure us with a hope in a glorious future.

But we also get an even greater gift. Death could not hold Jesus Christ in its grip. Jesus was resurrected from the dead and now sits at the right hand of God interceding for us. Satan approaches God and accuses us by telling God all we have done, all of our sins, and recommending that God give us what we really deserve. With such a formidable opponent we have little hope of escaping God’s wrath. But with Jesus Christ, our defender before God in heaven, we will not be punished. We escape from God’s wrath, saved by our savior.

But there is even a greater gift from God than even her love and forgiveness. We are given the right to boast, to tell others the glorious things God has done for us. We can declare to the world that Jesus Christ is our Lord and through him we have been reconciled with our creator and blessed with God’s love. We can boast because our new relationship with God is not of our own doing, but we have a restored relationship with God because of God’s gift of Jesus Christ.

So we have been adopted as God’s children. We are invited to have a wholesome relationship with our creator though his son, Jesus Christ. God’s love is poured into us through the Holy Spirit shaping us into God’s very image and glory. The risen Jesus Christ intercedes on our behalf saving us from the wrath of God. And we can shout to world about all the great things God has done for us.

Lord Jesus, we thank you for all your gifts: for the gift of the Holy Spirits who brings to us God’s love, for the gift of a restore relationship with the Father, and for your intersession on our behalf before the throne of God saving us from God wrath. We thank you and bless you and glorify you, our Lord and Savior, Amen.

Sermon – Romans 4:1-5, 13-17, Justified by Faith

Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard

Sermon – Romans 4:1-5, 13-17, Justified by Faith

Eagle Rock Presbyterian Church

February 17, 2008

Last week we began the Lenten Season by looking at the doctrine of Original Sin. We saw that our desire to decide for ourselves right from wrong allows us to set the bar lower and lower so that we mistakenly think that sin is out of lives. So no matter what we might think sin is still with us and something must be done about it. So today we will look at what God has done to rectify this situation.

Will you pray with me? Lord God we have messed up our lives through sin. Once again we bow before you in confession and plead for forgiveness. We thank you for the free gift of our salvation through our faith in Jesus Christ. Open our ears and our hearts today to hear the message you have for us. In Jesus’ name, amen

Romans 4:1-5 ^NRS Romans 4:1 What then are we to say was gained by Abraham, our ancestor according to the flesh? ² For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. ³ For what does the scripture say? "Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness." ⁴ Now to one who works, wages are not reckoned as a gift but as something due. ⁵ But to one who without works trusts him who justifies the ungodly, such faith is reckoned as righteousness.

Romans 4:13-17 ¹³ For the promise that he would inherit the world did not come to Abraham or to his descendants through the law but through the righteousness of faith. ¹⁴ If it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. ¹⁵ For the law brings wrath; but where there is no law, neither is there violation. ¹⁶ For this reason it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his descendants, not only to the adherents of the law but also to those who share the faith of Abraham (for he is the father of all of us, ¹⁷ as it is written, "I have made you the father of many nations")-- in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.

God promised to bless Abraham. The promise was huge. Abraham’s children would be more numerous than all the stars in heaven or all the grains of sand in the sea. They would form a great nation that would extend from the Red Sea to the River Euphrates. But the question that has perplexed scholars for thousands of years was: Why did God make this promise to Abraham; why was Abraham chosen?

One of the ancient biblical scholars who tackled this issue was a rabbi named Yeshua ben Eleazar ben Sirach who wrote in the second century before Christ. His book of instruction was well known by Jewish and Christians writers during the New Testament period. The Apostle Paul would have been very familiar with his writings. Sirach said that the reason Abraham receives this promise of a blessing from God was because Abraham had kept the law of the Most High. Abraham had obeyed God’s commands and decrees. And thus he was a role model for the faithful. If we obey God’s law then God will bless us too, or, put another way, good things happen to good people.

This is what the apostle Paul was taught as a Jew and a rising Pharisee. But as Paul experienced God’s blessing for himself he realized the Sirach’s connection of law and blessing was flawed. Paul was as lawless as they come. He thought we was keeping the law as a good Pharisee but realized later that this had been a rationalization. He had just set the bar lower. His behavior, of persecuting Christians and permitting the stoning of Stephen, was evil. Paul realized that he had been a great sinner. And even though he was one of the worst sinners of his time, God blessed him richly.

As Paul searched the scripture he saw that Abraham too was a sinner. Soon after arriving in Canaan with his wife Sarah a great drought occurred and they were forced to flee to Egypt. Abraham convinced Sarah to pretend to be his sister and traded her to Pharaoh for sheep, oxen, donkeys and slaves. Pimping out your wife is peculiar behavior for someone who supposedly always obeys God’s law. Paul realized that God blessed Abraham not because of Abraham behavior. Paul also realized that God had not provided the law to his people until the time of Moses, many generations after Abraham. There was no way that Abraham could have kept God’s law because the law did not yet exist. So God’s blessing of Abraham could have nothing to do with obeying the law.

So if Abraham’s behavior did not merit God’s blessing and if there was no law to keep why did God bless Abraham? Paul’s answer was that it must be a free gift. Abraham, obviously, had done nothing to deserve a promise of great blessing, and neither had Paul. But both of them had been blessed by God. The only explanation was that this blessing was a free gift from God, called grace.

There was one thing that both Abraham and Paul had in abundance. They both had an ample portions of faith in God. And faith was the reason God had blessed Abraham. This can clearly be seen in Genesis 15:6, “and Abraham believed the LORD; and the LORD reckoned it to him as righteousness.” So the reason God blessed Abraham was because of Abraham’s faith, and this faith included the belief that God would bless the ungodly. This became an important doctrine in the church called justification by faith through grace.

You will remember from last week that the reason we are blocked from eating of the tree of life is because of sin. God wants us back in the garden eating from the tree of life. So God forgives our sins and gives us eternal life as a free gift. And we receive this free gift through our faith in Jesus Christ.

Justification, God’s blessing of the ungodly, has three important aspects. First, it is provided to us by our creator who loves us, forgives us and offers us eternal life. Second, it is a free gift with no cost to the believer. And third, the only thing you have to do is to have faith in Jesus Christ.

In the 16^th century, the church was divided by arguments over what “justification” meant. This period was called the Protestant Reformation and is the reason why we have so many different churches today. Some churches emphasized the fact that justification comes from God. Others emphasized the fact that justification is a free gift. And still others emphasized the fact that faith is necessary.

The Roman Catholics have focused on the need to be faithful. They asked what it meant to be a faithful person? The Bible teaches us that being faithful is not just believing something in your head. It goes beyond that to having a way of life that comes from a relationship with Jesus. But if the need to be faithful is emphasized too much it begins to look like justification is no longer a free gift. If faith becomes something we do to earn justification then justification is no longer free. So we have to be careful not to overemphasize the working out of our faith as a part of justification, and accept this blessing from God as a free gift.

The Lutherans have focused on the fact that justification comes from God as a free gift of God’s grace. They asked, how do we find a gracious God? The Bible teaches us that God finds us. God sent his own Son into the world to save us. There is nothing that we have to do. Their slogan, “by faith alone”, indicates that there is nothing that we do, no law to keep, to earn God’s blessing. God’s blessing of the ungodly with forgiveness of sins and eternal life is a free gift from a loving God. But if the idea of a free gift is emphasized too much it begins to look like justification requires no behavioral change at all. We can keep on sinning confident that God will keep on forgiving us. But the Bible is clear we must not keep on sinning. Repentance and amendment of life are important. So we must be careful not to overemphasize the importance of the free gift as part of justification, and realize our obligations as faithful people.

We Presbyterians and other Reformed churches have focused on our sovereign God who decided to bless the ungodly with forgiveness of sin and eternal life. Our response to God’s free gift is to live thankfully according to God’s law. That is why we are using the Ten Commandments as our thankful response to God’s gift of forgiveness in our liturgy during Lent. God alone chooses who will be blessed, and as faithful people we joyously thank God for this gift. But if God has already chosen who will be blessed then why is faith important? Why should we evangelize nonbelievers and demand conversion and faith before someone can receive God’s blessing? An overemphasis on God’s choice minimizes our need to choose God and be faithful. So we must be careful not to overemphasize the fact that it is God who justifies us and remember that we must believe in Jesus Christ.

So the doctrine of justification rests on a three legged stool. It stands on the choice of God, to bless the faithful with forgiveness of sins and eternal life as a free gift. God’s choice to bless us, our faith in Jesus Christ, and God’s free gift are all important and have to be balanced for us to have a correct understanding of the doctrine of justification. In other words our loving God chose us, to be faithful and receive, as a free gift of grace, our blessing of forgiveness of sin and eternal life. John the Evangelist put it so elegantly this way: John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.

If you believe that Jesus Christ is your Lord and Savior then you can be assured that God will bless you with the forgiveness of sin and eternal life. I urge you now to obey God’s commandments as your thankful response for this free gift.

If you do not believe in Jesus Christ I cannot give you the assurance that God will bless you. If you would like to know that your sins are forgiven and that you will enjoy eternal life I invite you to declare with you lips that Jesus Christ is Lord. That is all you have to do. Nothing more is required. And God will bless you, forgive you and give you eternal life, Amen.

Sermon, Romans 5:12-19, Original Sin

Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard

Sermon, Romans 5:12-19, Original Sin

Eagle Rock Presbyterian Church

First Sunday of Lent, February 10, 2008

This morning we have arrived at the first Sunday of Lent. Lent is an ancient practice of the church. Beginning in the 2^nd century, Christians spent two or three days fasting in preparation for Easter. By the 4^th century this had developed into a forty-day season remembering the 40 days of rain in Noah’s time, the 40 years the Israelites spent in the wilderness, and the 40 days of the temptation of Christ in the wilderness. This was a time of preparation for new Christians before baptism on Easter and it encouraged Christians to reflect on their own baptismal vows. In the centuries that followed Christians were encouraged during Lent to consider their sin and repentance in anticipation of Christ’s suffering on the cross. Will you pray with me?

Father in heaven we come to you this day with penitent hearts and a desire to repent. We ask that you forgive our sins and restore us to your presence. We pray this in the name of our savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, amen.

Romans 5:12-19 ¹² Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death came through sin, and so death spread to all because all have sinned-- ¹³ sin was indeed in the world before the law, but sin is not reckoned when there is no law. ¹⁴ Yet death exercised dominion from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sins were not like the transgression of Adam, who is a type of the one who was to come. ¹⁵ But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died through the one man's trespass, much more surely have the grace of God and the free gift in the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abounded for the many. ¹⁶ And the free gift is not like the effect of the one man's sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brings justification. ¹⁷ If, because of the one man's trespass, death exercised dominion through that one, much more surely will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness exercise dominion in life through the one man, Jesus Christ. ¹⁸ Therefore just as one man's trespass led to condemnation for all, so one man's act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all. ¹⁹ For just as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous.

We live in free country. Our freedom is given to us by God and protected by our Constitution and Bill of Rights. We have the freedom to speak our minds even if the government does not like what we say. We have the freedom to assemble without the government’s interference. And we have the freedom to worship God. We are free because our creator made us as free people. We were placed in a garden with freedom to go where we wanted and eat what we wanted. God created us, provided for us, cared for us, and loved us. In this paradise God intended that we live in the presence of the creator forever. Our freedom was almost unlimited

But did you ever wake up one morning and look in the mirror and realize that you were stuck with yourself? As a youth you had numerous options and things you wanted to do. Your potential was unlimited. But as you grew older you began to realize that the freedom you once had to be anything you wanted to be had turned into: you are what you are. Your freedom to marry anyone you want is now limited to the one you are married to. The freedom to do anything you want to do is now limited by the education and career choices you have made. The longer we live the more limited is our freedom.

One of our freedoms we enjoyed in the garden was that we could choose to eat from one of the trees in its center. Of course God told us don’t eat it, but we still have the choice. We don’t know much about this tree. We know it looked nice and it fruit was delicious. We also know that our creator warned us about this tree. God said that if we eat from this tree we will die.

We know that this tree was called “the tree of the knowledge of good and evil”. Now here is a question for you. What do you think it would mean to eat from a tree called “the tree of the knowledge of good and evil”? I suspect that if someone chose to eat from a tree with that name that person would want to decide herself or himself what was good and what was evil. Eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil means that we, humanity, will decide for ourselves issues of right and wrong. Not eating from the tree means that we let God decide. Which will we choose? Would we want to decide for ourselves good and evil? Or would we let God make this decision for us? We know the decision all of humanity has made because the consequences are obvious. All of us have chosen to decide for ourselves what is good and what is evil. We know this because the consequence of our choice is death and all of us will die. Death is the proof that all of humanity has chosen to defy God and eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Our attempt to get ourselves out of this mess is to do good and not do evil. But since our sin was deciding for ourselves what good is how could this help us? We simply set the bar low enough that anything we do is good. You can see this at work in our society today; fewer and fewer things are called evil. Today, the greatest virtue is to be tolerant of those practices which we once consider to be evil. And God does not figure in these debates at all.

Sometime humanity will eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil by forming a committee to study a problem and make a decision. Our colleges train people in ethics who sit on these committees and vote on whether something is good or evil. Some of the hot button ethical debates going on today deal with the war in Iraq, stem cell research, and the ordination of homosexuals by the church. You probably have you own ideas about each of these and feel at least somewhat qualified to decide what is good and what is evil. We all eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil from time to time. We think that it is our right to decided for ourselves what is right and what is wrong. Sadly, the consequence of making these decisions, not the decisions themselves, but our choice to make the decisions ourselves results in death.

We can’t go back into the garden and let God decide the difference between good and evil for us. It is too late. The choice has already been made. Humanity has already eaten from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. We have tasted the fruit that is so pleasant to look at and so delicious to eat. The temptation to decide for ourselves what is right and what is wrong is overwhelming. And therefore the consequences are assured. We will die. There is no going back.

Throughout history only one person even chose not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Only one person ever resisted the temptation to decide for himself what is right and what is wrong. Only one person allowed God to make these decisions. Only one person was fully obedient. That person was Jesus Christ.

Our creator God placed Jesus not in a garden but in a wilderness. There was nothing there to eat or drink for 40 days. Jesus was tempted to decide for himself whether turning stones into bread was good or evil. He was tempted to decide for himself whether jumping off the temple was right or wrong. And he was tempted to decide for himself whether or not worshiping Satan was good. Jesus responded to each of these temptations by saying that only God can decide what is right and what is wrong. Jesus refused to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Because of this decision Jesus did not suffer the consequence that plagues the rest of humanity. Jesus Christ was not sentenced to everlasting death but was chosen by God for eternal life.

So is there any hope for us who have chosen to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? Our only hope is that the obedience of one man, Jesus Christ, is greater than the disobedience of all of the rest of us combined. Here is the good new. It is! Jesus’ decision to allow God to determine what is right and what is wrong was sufficient to restore us to a right relationship with God and eliminate the calamitous consequence of our choice to make these decisions ourselves. By being obedient to God, Jesus reversed the effects of our disobedience and the condemnation of death has been abolished. We call this reversal “grace”. Grace means that God entered into the world to reverse the harmful effects of what we have done. The victory over death is won.

You see there was a second tree in garden. Presumably this tree was also beautiful to look at and its fruit was delicious to eat. The name of this tree was “the tree of life”. Anyone who eats of the tree of life will live forever. When we chose to eat from the other tree our pathway to the tree of life was blocked. And without the nourishing fruit of the tree of life we experience mortality and death. But in Jesus Christ the pathway to the tree of life was restored. This restoration was a free gift from our creator God who wants us, really wants us to live together with him forever.

By giving us access again to the tree of life God has given us freedom to choose. It is not the old freedom to choose what is right and what is wrong because that choice leads to death. The new freedom that we are given in Christ is to choose God. And we are free to choose God because God has chosen us first. God chose us to be the beneficiaries of Christ’s obedience. So even though we are disobedient and still eat from that other tree, Christ’s obedience to God is transferred to us as if we were the obedient ones. Christ is handing us the fruit of the tree of life as free gift.

So when you look in the mirror tomorrow morning remember that you are not stuck with yourself. You are not the product of all the choices you have made. Rather you have an unlimited potential with an infinite number of options for your life because in Christ your past choices are wiped clean and you can choose to follow him into eternal life. You are never stuck with yourself. Rather you are stuck on Christ who gives you the freedom to love and follow God forever.

Lord Jesus, you fasted forty days in the wilderness, and were tempted as we are but did not sin. Give us grace to direct our lives in obedience to your Spirit, amen.

February Vision Column

Vision – February 2008

From the Pastor’s Desk

When I was growing up in Virginia, Sunday morning was time for church. My father worked Monday through Friday and was off for the weekends. Saturday was the day for shopping and Little League games. On Sunday all of the stores were closed, no activities were scheduled and everyone knew where they were supposed to go. It seemed like every family in our community went to church on Sunday morning.

Today times have changed. We live more hectic lifestyles. Many of us work on weekends, all the stores are open, and Sunday mornings is often the only time available for activities for children. Sunday mornings are now not only about church. People have many options from reading the paper at Starbucks to hiking in the mountains to surfing off the coast.

The church has to respond to the changes in our culture. It is not enough anymore to have just one service on Sunday mornings and hope to meet the spiritual needs of the people in the community. That is why we here at Eagle Rock Presbyterian Church are offering to the community alternative times and ways of connecting to God.

Many people get up early to begin long commutes to work. Along with morning coffee they need morning prayers for a spiritual wake up. That is why we have morning prayers in our sanctuary every morning (Tuesday – Saturday) at 6:00 a.m. in our sanctuary. It is the perfect way to begin each day by connecting to God.

Other people have a hard time getting up in the morning. They like to sleep in. Sunday is often the only day they have to relax. For these people we have a Sunday evening worship service at 5:30 p.m. Our seminary intern, David Kim, leads us in singing with his beautiful voice and guitar. I preach and teach from the beloved Heidelberg Catechism. And then we move into Montgomery Hall for dinner, cooked by my wife Grace, and small group Bible study. It is a very relaxing way of worshiping God and enjoying fellowship with others.

We have nearly 100 families who bring their children here each week to the Westminster Child Center. Most of the mothers drop off their kid at 9:00 a.m. So for them we will be starting a 9:00 a.m. (Monday and Thursday) fellowship time. We are partnering with MOPS, Mothers of Preschoolers, a Christian organization that helps churches to connect with mothers by developing fellowship groups.

Later this month we will be having our annual Thursday Night Lenten Soup Suppers for those looking for a midweek opportunity for worship. These will start with a soup supper at 6:00 p.m. in Montgomery Hall followed by contemplative Lenten Communion Vespers in the sanctuary at 7:00 p.m. At these you will find God’s peace as you are prepared for the joyous celebration of Easter.

So if God calls you worship early in the morning or in the evening or midweek or on Sunday the church is ready to join with you in prayers and song.

Blessings,

Jeff Howard, Pastor

Sermon – Spring Cleaning – Matt. 6:1-6, 16-21

Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard

Sermon – Spring Cleaning – Matt. 6:1-6, 16-21

Ash Wednesday

February 6, 2008

When I was young my family would visit my grandparent’s home in Pennsylvania. My grandfather was a coal miner and most of the people in his town heated their homes with coal. So whenever we went there in winter the first thing I always noticed was the aroma of coal burning in those furnaces. All of those coal fires sent soot into the air which settled over everything. My grandmother would get up at 4 a.m. to hang the clean clothes in the back yard to dry so that they could be brought into the house before everyone else woke up and stoked their fires releasing ash into air which would soil the clothes.

Once a year a day would come which we called “spring cleaning”. During spring cleaning all of the coal ash that had accumulated during the cold winter months had to be swept out of the house. Rugs were beaten in the back yard, walls were scrubbed, porches swept, and windows shined inside and out. The house was made spic and span for summer.

This is what Ash Wednesday is all about. It is spring cleaning for our souls. Tonight the soot of sin which has built up over the months and years is swept out leaving behind forgiveness and a spic and span clean heart ready for a restored relationship with God.

Tonight we will be looking at the soot of sin which has penetrated our souls, and needs to be cleaned up. Specifically I will look at three sins which separate us from our creator. These sins are: prayer, fasting and giving money to the poor.

Will you pray with me? Lord Jesus we come to you today covered by the ashes of our sin. Cleanse us and renew us so that we may come closer to you, amen.

You are probably thinking that it is time to find a new pastor. Whenever a pastor says that prayer, fasting and alms giving are sins then it is clearly time for a change. The Bible tells us to pray. Daily prayer is essential for spiritual growth. Prayer connects us with God and allows us to mold our will around his. How in the world could prayer be a sin? Listen to what Jesus says:

Matthew 6:5-8 ⁵ "And whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. ⁶ But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you. ⁷ "When you are praying, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard because of their many words. ⁸ Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

Several years ago I was visiting a church in rural Mississippi. A young woman rushed into the room and said that we have to pray for Eunice. Everyone immediately bowed their heads as this young woman prayed for Eunice whose husband had been seen with another woman. At the conclusion of the prayer the pastor of the church took the young woman aside and told her that prayer should not be used as a way of spreading gossip.

This is the way sin works. We take something good that God has provided for us and we twist it, pervert it into something bad. We think that we are not sinning because we are doing what we are supposed to do. But because sin is so much a part of our nature we turn good works into abominable things. Even praying becomes something we are ashamed of.

And what about fasting? Does not the Bible tell us that we should fast? Does not a fast intensify our experience of prayer and meditation? Should we as a church not fast when we have an important decision to make and need to know God’s will? Of course fasting is an important part of our spirituality. It heightens our experience of listening for God in prayer and helps us to understand where God is leading us. But listen to what Jesus has to say about fasting.

Matthew 6:16-18 ¹⁶ "And whenever you fast, do not look dismal, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces so as to show others that they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. ¹⁷ But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, 18 so that your fasting may be seen not by others but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

The medieval church knew about the importance of fasting. Monks would use it to intensify their spiritual experiences. Whenever the church experienced persecution or schism a period of fasting was needed to focus the church on God. But over the years fasting was tied to the church calendar and became a hollow expression of faith. Ash Wednesday kicked off the forty day Lenten fast leading up to Easter. By the time of the Protestant Reformation the Lenten fast consisted of doing trivial thinks like not eating meat on Fridays. The Reformers abolished Ash Wednesday and the Lenten fast in an effort to restore fasting to it proper place in the church.

Sin has a way of taking spiritual practices that God has given us to bring us closer to him and twisting them for our own uses. Rather then allowing a fast to increase our sense of humility before God we turn it into a way of puffing up our own sense of pride. We boast to others about our higher level of spiritually. Our focus is on ourselves rather than God. Fasting becomes useless because we use it exalt ourselves rather than bow down at the feet of Jesus.

But certainly giving money to the poor must be good. How could sin ever mess up something like that? God demands righteousness for the poor throughout scripture. Listen to what Jesus says.

Matthew 6:2-4 ² "So whenever you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be praised by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. ³ But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, ⁴ so that your alms may be done in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

As the nineteenth century came to a close many of the great industrialists who had made fortunes in banking, steel, and oil were approaching retirement. They were plagued with the concern of what to do with all their money. Philanthropy was the answer. Capitalists like Carnegie, Mellon and Rockefeller formed foundations to distribute their vast sums. Their names when up on buildings and they became very well known. They became better known for their giving than they ever were while leading corporations. And they really enjoyed their notoriety. All of this is being repeated today with the internet tycoons and Hollywood celebrities. But they forgot that all of the wealth that they had was given to them by God and it God not them who was at work using them to help the poor. So even if we give money to the poor we sin if we do not acknowledge that we can love the poor only because God loves us first.

It would be nice if sin was just about sex and alcohol. Sex and alcohol are things we can deal with. We can stop having sex outside of marriage. We can stop drinking inappropriately. But sin is far more than this. Sin is buried so deep in our hearts we cannot get it out. Sin is like dandelions back east with roots that go so deep in your lawn they cannot be pulled out completely. Trying to clean up your life by doing a little better has little or no chance of eradicating something a pervasive as sin. For that we need much stronger medicine.

That is why we have come here tonight for a little spring cleaning. It is time to get the brooms and mops and begin cleaning up the ashes of our sin. This can only be done by approaching God humbly in confession and asking God to create in us clean hearts. We need to admit our fallenness and ask for forgiveness. This will prepare us for Lent as we pray each day, fast and give to the poor with a spirit of humility and an acknowledgment of God’s love and power. And then we will then be ready for Easter when we will receive in abundance the grace and mercy of God, Amen.